The United States is the largest recipient of guest workers in the world, who are used to lower labor costs under the guise of filling a shortage of labor for substandard or scarce skilled jobs. Professor Ness shows migration's influence in weakening wages and working conditions in both sending and receiving countries. The in-depth case studies from India and hospitality workers from Jamaica reveal how these programs expose guest workers to employers' abuses. Ness rejects the assertion that temporary workers enthusiastically go to the US for low-paying jobs and details how organized labor ought to protect the interests of migrant and US-born workers alike.

Immanuel Ness is a professor of political science at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. His research and writing focuses on social movements, labor militancy and migrant worker resistance to oppression. Ness has written published scholarly books and monographs on unemployment, precarious labor, migration and guest work, syndicalism and new worker organizations.

-----SIPA's Migration Working Group aims to promote dialogue, awareness, and community involvement in national and international migration issues. Through advocacy, volunteerism, career networking, and academic seminars and conferences we engage SIPA, Columbia University, and the wider New York community in the interdisciplinary field of migration.